For those who have been following this blog—I haven’t fallen off the edge of the earth.
I’ve fallen in love instead.
To put it succinctly: the adorable Geraldine Buckley and I are planning a wedding for November. The falling and the planning are both time-consuming activities, though in the best possible way. The fact that the marriage will involve moving to another state and combining two households adds even more complications.
So my blogging, writing, and even critiquing are temporarily on hold. I haven’t lost interest; the time pressure is just too great. Once the wedding has taken place in November, I expect to be back at it with renewed enthusiasm. In the meantime, enjoy the late summer and early autumn!
P.S.—Amazon’s Lord of the Rings spinoff looks pretty good, two episodes in. More later…
Rick Ellrod's Observatory 
Congratulations and many happy wishes for a wonderful future for the two of you together!
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Let me add my congratulations too!!!!
Although, where that Lord of the Rings series is concerned – a character named Theo? Theo?! In something by Tolkien??
But that can wait till you post about it. Again, congratulations to both of you!!!
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Yeah, “Theo” struck me as a little out of place too. But not too drastically so. We’re talking about Second Age humans here (and not, I think, members of the Edain), so human-style names would seem to be in order.
In LotR, we see mostly humans of Gondor or Rohan, who tend to use Elvish or Old English-based names respectively. In Bree, we get “naturalistic” names like Barliman Butterbur, or short forms like Bob and Nob and Bill Ferny — again, vaguely English-sounding.
The trouble with “Theo” is that it’s Greek in origin, and there’s no trace of a Greek-like language in Middle-Earth. (“Bronwyn,” by contrast, is Welsh or Celtic, which sounds more plausible as geographically akin to English.) But “Theo” is a normal sort of human name in English-speaking countries, and I’m inclined to cut the writers some slack as far as extreme linguistic purity is concerned. 😉
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Fair enough. I’m not comfortable with it, though; Beren, Luthien (granted she’s an elf), was it Fingold? Long time since I tackled the Silmarillion.
Thing is, 1) there are a number of First and Second Age names out there, and none of them are Greek or Latin or anything but northern European, which fits with Tolkien’s vision of a tale that functioned as northern Euro legend.
The other is, 2) Theo means god. Tolkien’s mythos certainly contains god-type creatures, but they are never referred to as such. Which makes the name not work for me even more so.
Well, enough. Congratulations again, and we can talk linguistic purity whenever you blog about the Rings of Power. 🙂
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Yes — I’d prefer it if they had avoided “Theo.” But the writers can still pull off a creditable Middle-Earth tale — if they keep up the good work. (We’ll know more by the time I can get around to commenting in detail.)
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Congratulations, friend!
Al
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Thank you! 🙂
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I take it all back. I won’t go into detail here, I’ve talked too much as it is. But for anyone interested, my thought process is here: https://kevinwadejohnson.blogspot.com/2022/09/purity-and-tolkiens-middle-earth.html
Rick, I look forward to your detailed thoughts. And with that I’ll leave you to your wedding planning!!
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